1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a program for generating electronic albums, by laying out digital photographic images within templates.
2. Description of the Related Art
Methods for automatically laying out images, characters, and the like according to prepared templates have been proposed. However, the layouts of templates affect the clearness and attractiveness of the outcomes of automatic layout. Therefore, designers or the like design several layouts in advance, and images and characters are laid out by use of templates having the layouts. More specifically, templates each having frames to insert images or characters therein are prepared in predetermined layout areas, and images and characters are inserted in the frames according to the templates. Services have been proposed, in which digital images photographed by digital still cameras and the like are laid out in the templates, to generate electronic albums.
Among these electronic albums, there are those which are displayed while music is played to match the images. Conventionally, the music and the images are combined such that an operator instructs the display of images to be switched while the music is played, in order to perform display such that the music and the images match. However, this operation requires experienced operators. Therefore, a method has been proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-116094, in which data, which is a combination of music and model images which are displayed at specific timings during playback of the music, is generated, and the model images are substituted by users' own images.
There are cases in which speech balloons are inserted into images, to realistically reproduce situations which had occurred during photography. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-196481 discloses a system that detects subjects pictured within images, and displays speech balloons corresponding to the positions of the subjects.
However, in each of the above methods, it is necessary for users to lay out images that match the templates, while viewing the images, which is troublesome. In addition, there are cases in which the prepared templates do not match the images to be laid out. In order to be able to find templates which are suited for any type of image, it becomes necessary to prepare a great number of templates. However, if the number of templates is increased, the workload involved in finding suitable templates also increases.